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Anxiety is rising among White House aides after a guilty verdict was announced for Paul Manafort, the president’s former campaign chairman, while in a separate case, Michael Cohen, his former lawyer, pleaded guilty to criminal charges.

Speaking at a rally in West Virginia hours after back-to-back legal blows in cases stemming from Robert Mueller's investigation, President Donald Trump insisted his campaign did not collude with Russia.
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Those are familiar feelings for aides to Donald Trump, a president who seems to relish combat and controversy and whose inner circle has been increasingly rocked by revelations stemming from federal investigations.

This week, White House staff members experienced a new level of turbulence after a guilty verdict was announced for Paul Manafort, the president’s former campaign chairman, while in a separate case, Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer, pleaded guilty to criminal charges.

In interviews with a half-dozen Trump aides and people close to the White House, many described rising concerns about federal inquiries underway, including special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

"I think people are genuinely shaken," said one official, who like others spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters. "They're still trying to digest it – process it."

In the latest sign of the potential dangers for Trump and those close to him, The Wall Street Journal and Vanity Fair reported Thursday that David Pecker, CEO of American Media Inc., had been granted immunity by federal prosecutors in a deal in which he has been discussing Trump's role in hush agreements ahead of the 2016 election to women who said they had sexual encounters with the president.

Pecker, a close Trump ally, has been accused of helping silence negative stories about the president, including purchasing the rights to stories, then quashing them in a practice known as "catch and kill."

As the developments unfolded this week, television screens in the West Wing played cable television programs dominated by the news about Manafort, Cohen and the Mueller investigation. Aides sought to go about their business, focusing on tasks such as planning Wednesday’s Medal of Honor ceremony in the East Room and the effort to shepherd through the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.

The president also has been tweeting, denying wrongdoing and attacking Cohen. In one post, Trump praised Manafort because, unlike Cohen, "he refused to 'break' " to prosecutors and "make up stories in order to get a 'deal.' "

He has also lashed out at Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who recused himself from the investigation of Russian election interference, which paved the way for Mueller’s appointment.

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Tuesday was a bad day in court for former associates of President Donald Trump, and it could foreshadow tough days ahead for the president. AP's Washington Bureau Chief Julie Pace looks at what it all means for Trump's White House. (Aug. 21)
AP

Of the two bombshells that dropped this week – the Manafort guilty verdict and the Cohen guilty plea – aides said their biggest concern right now was about Cohen and his claim that the president directed him to pay the women to buy their silence. Prosecutors say the payments violated campaign finance laws because they were made to prevent information from coming out that could have damaged Trump’s campaign.

Throughout the course of Manafort's trial, aides said they more or less expected Trump's former campaign chairman to be convicted on financial fraud charges. As they did so, they echoed Trump's claims that charges against Manafort stemmed from long-ago allegations and had nothing to do with the president’s campaign or Russians who sought to influence the race in Trump’s favor.

One concern of aides is the suggestion by Cohen's attorney that his client is eager to provide information about Trump and Russia to Mueller. Cohen is a longtime associate of the president who had long been known as his “fixer.”

In a somber yet tense briefing with reporters on Wednesday, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders declined to get into the "back and forth" on the Cohen and Mueller investigations and repeatedly said Trump "did nothing wrong." At one point she said, "Just because Michael Cohen made a plea deal doesn’t mean that implicates the president in anything."

Disputing the idea that the administration needs to make changes to meet its new legal challenges, Sanders said Trump and his team would "continue to focus on the things Americans care about," particularly the economy,

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President Donald Trump is distancing himself from his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, in the wake of Cohen's guilty plea to eight charges, including campaign finance violations that Cohen says he carried out in coordination with Trump. (Aug. 23)
AP

Longtime allies said Trump and the staff were holding up well.

"It's a huge distraction to many in the media," said Boris Epshteyn, a former White House aide who is now chief political analyst for Sinclair Broadcast Group. "But it's not a huge distraction to the president and his staff, who continue to work very hard for the American people."

Some aides predicted that Trump will be increasingly aggressive as the investigations roll on into the fall, along with high-stakes political campaigns for control of Congress.

Echoing those feelings, former Trump campaign adviser Michael Caputo said Cohen is not a trustworthy witness and the president should continue to speak out against him.

Caputo also said the legal actions against Manafort and Cohen clarify something that has been obvious for awhile: Democrats will push for impeachment, and the White House should be prepared to deal with it.

"It's very clear now – if it wasn't clear before – that the 2018 midterm elections are a referendum on the impeachment of the president of the United States," Caputo said.

Some aides to Trump noted that they have been through tense times before: the firing of FBI Director James Comey in May 2017, the appointment of Mueller as special counsel that same month, Trump's tweeted admission this past May that he reimbursed Cohen for hush payments to former adult film star Stormy Daniels, and Cohen's release in July of a taped conversation with Trump.

These latest revelations? "To be honest," one official said, "it's kind of like ... whatever."

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Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s longtime personal attorney, leaving the hearing room following his testimony to the House Committee on Oversight and Reform on Feb. 27, 2019 in Washington. Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison for a series of federal crimes, including campaign finance violations and tax evasion. Jack Gruber, USA TODAY

Robin Bell, left, and Sorane Yamahira look at their work projected on the Trump International Hotel, July 23, 2018, in Washington. In a city with a long tradition of leftist street activism, Bell has become something of a local celebrity. Every few weeks, Bell puts messages of protest on the side of the Trump International Hotel. He's called President Donald Trump a pig and a racist, used smiling poop emojis, and taunted the president with images of his former lawyer, Michael Cohen. Alex Brandon, AP

Michael Cohen, longtime personal lawyer and confidante for President Donald Trump, leaves Federal Court after his hearing at the United States District Court Southern District of New York, April 16, 2018, in New York. Officials with the FBI, armed with a search warrant, raided Cohen's office and two private residences last week. YANA PASKOVA, GETTY IMAGES

Adult-film actress Stephanie Clifford, also known as Stormy Daniels, speaks outside U.S. Federal Court with her lawyer Michael Avenatti (R) in Lower Manhattan, New York on April 16, 2018.
Stormy Daniels, the porn star who claims to have had a consensual sexual encounter with Donald Trump a decade ago, said April 17, 2018 that she is pursuing legal action against the president because she is "done being bullied.""I'm tired of being threatened, intimidating me, and trying to say that you'll ruin my life and take all my money and my house," Daniels said on ABC's "The View.""I'm done being bullied," Daniels said of legal threats from Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen, who is now embroiled in his own legal troubles."I'm done," Daniels said. EDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZ, AFP/GETTY IMAGES

In this courtroom sketch, Joanna Hendon, right, one of President Donald Trump's lawyers, speaks as the president's personal attorney Michael Cohen, left, sits next to one of his own attorneys Todd Harrison, center, with porn star Stormy Daniels visible in the audience between Cohen and Harrison, during a federal court hearing in New York, April 16, 2018. Attorneys for Cohen and Trump tried to persuade U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood to delay prosecutors from examining records and electronic devices seized in the raids on the grounds that many of them are protected by attorney-client privilege. ELIZABETH WILLIAMS VIA AP

(L to R) Todd Harrison and Joseph Evans, attorneys for Michael Cohen, arrive for a court proceeding regarding the search warrants served on President Donald Trump's longtime personal attorney Michael Cohen, at the United States District Court Southern District of New York, April 13, 2018 in New York. Cohen and his lawyers were asking the court to block Justice Department officials from reading documents and materials related to his relationship with President Donald Trump that they believe should be protected by attorney-client privilege. Officials with the FBI, armed with a search warrant, raided Cohen's office and two private residences earlier in the week. DREW ANGERER, GETTY IMAGES

CBS This Morning co-anchor Gayle King, left, Stormy Daniels' attorney Michael Avenatti, CNN news anchor Don Lemon and FOX News talk show host Sean Hannity pose for a selfie at The Hollywood Reporter's annual 35 Most Powerful People in Media event at The Pool on Thursday, April 12, 2018, in New York.
In court hearings on April 16, 2018, it was revealed that the client list of presidential lawyer Michael Cohen also includes Sean Hannity, one of the president's biggest supporters. EVAN AGOSTINI, INVISION/AP

In this Sept. 19, 2017 file photo, President Trump's personal attorney Michael Cohen appears in front of members of the media after a closed door meeting with the Senate Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill, in Washington. Federal agents carrying court-authorized search warrants have seized documents from Cohen according to a statement from Cohens attorney, Stephen Ryan. He says that the search warrants were executed by the office of the U.S. Attorney for Southern District of New York but they are in part related to special counsel Robert Muellers investigation. Andrew Harnik, AP

The actress Stephanie Clifford, who uses the stage name Stormy Daniels, performs at the Solid Gold Fort Lauderdale strip club on March 9, 2018 in Pompano Beach, Florida. Stephanie Clifford who claims to have had an affair with President Trump has filed a suit against him in an attempt to nullify a nondisclosure deal with Trump attorney Michael Cohen days before Trump's 2016 presidential victory. Joe Raedle, Getty Images

Michael Cohen's lawyer David Schwartz appeared on Megyn Kelly TODAY on March 29, 2018 to discuss the Stormy Daniels lawsuit against President Trump and her attorney's motion to depose Trump and Cohen. Schwartz called the case "completely frivolous." Nathan Congleton, NBC

(L to R) Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, President-elect Donald Trump's choice for National Security Advisor, Michael Cohen, executive vice president of the Trump Organization and special counsel to Donald Trump, and former Texas Governor Rick Perry talk with each other in the lobby at Trump Tower, December 12, 2016, in New York City. President-elect Donald Trump and his transition team were in the process of filling cabinet and other high level positions for the new administration. Drew Angerer, Getty Images